This year (2012) i am going to attempt to close my pool on my own. There are several steps to the process i will try to document here, and take photos. You need to do this right, and as i understand, blowing the lines of water and securing re-entry of water is the most important step or you could ruin your entire system.

No pressure.

This should save me a couple hundred dollars, or end up costing me a lot more.

I am planning to take an entire Saturday or Sunday afternoon to do this. Prior to actually winterizing the pool, i will need to first shock the pool and add necessary chemicals (which i don’t believe the company which has been closing the pool for 3 yrs now has ever done before) to get your pool as nice and clean as it can possibly be when Spring comes).

What i need

Winterize kit (shock, algae control, metal free, chlorine)

Winter cover and stick

plugs

tools

shopvac (empty bottle of water and duck tape) or compressor

Steps

add chemicals

lower level (16 inches)

take vacuum out – clean it

blow the lines and secure air in

secure skimmers

take filter out and clean

Blowing out lines

This is where i got stuck so far this year. I have 2 skimmers and one main drain, with 3 return lines and a separate pump for my vacuum.

I do not own a air compressor, so i watched a few youtube videos and tried to blow water out of lines using my 2.5hp shopvac and also my professional grade leaf blower. I tried everything, blocking return lines, de-assembling the system to only blow 1 or 2 lines at a time, that was just unsuccessful. My lines are a good 15-20 ft out, so there is quite some distance.

What I need to build pressure in my entire system, and the water “should” get pushed out of the return lines through the jets.

Placing the cover

This wasn’t too bad, as long as you figure out which way the cover should go. I first opened it up across the pool and tried to makes sense of which way it had to go, but it turned out to be pretty obvious. What threw me off was that the liner has to be upside down, the good-shiny side needs to face the pool. Then it is easier if you start from a side where the pool shape is the most curvy, then secure one anchor at a time, and move around the entire pool.
At this point, i still need to blow the lines out, but no leaves will get into the pool (though the cover was full of debris from last yr and messed up all the cleaning i hade done.
It took 10-15mn from the time i started to place the cover the right way to the point i was done securing all anchors.

Natural Chemistry Metal Free

Metal Free is a highly effective metal deactivation agent that prevents staining and discoloration from trace metals such as copper and iron. These trace metals may already be in the pool fill water or in water added to maintain water level. Metal free should be used as part of a well designed pool maintenance program.